


Over You

by Rowena_Bensel



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 03:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5611930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rowena_Bensel/pseuds/Rowena_Bensel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baron sits in the Bureau think over Haru, the happy times he spent with her. But now she's out of his reach and he's never going to get over her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over You

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was my first ever Cat Returns fanfic, from way back in 2012. Amazing, back then, I was just starting high school. It's done pretty well for my stories over on fanfiction.net (9 reviews, 14 favs), and I'm Coming Home is still getting kudos, so I figured I'd share this one. I don't know why, but my songfics are always kinda melancholy. At the end you'll see my original author's note from back then, which explains where this story came from.

_ Weatherman said, _ __   
_ It's gonna snow. _ __   
_ By now I should, _ _   
_ __ Be used to the cold.

Baron turned on the radio in the Bureau, the smallest house in the Refuge. There was no one else around, they were all in the Cat Kingdom. He turned it to the weather station just as the weatherman was saying; "It's going to be another cold one today, Ami. High at 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 degrees Celsius) and we have a large snow front coming in that will last till about 11:00 this evening. If I were you, I'd stay indoors as much as possible today, people, cause otherwise you'll freeze your-" click. Baron turned the radio off and sat in his armchair. 'Cold doesn't matter,' he thought to himself. 'I'm used to it.'

_ Mid-February, _ __   
_ Shouldn't be so scary. _ __   
_ It was only December, _ __   
_ I still remember, _ __   
_ the presents, the tree, _ _   
_ __ You, and me.

He looked over to the chest that sat next to the doorway. Above it, on the wall, was a picture, a photograph turned painting. Haru smiled out of it, dancing in the meadows of the Cat Kingdom. He had snapped it just as she was turning to face him. That had been the summer just after her adventure in the Kingdom, and about her thirtieth time visiting either there or the Bureau.

He thought about another favorite memory of her, it was Christmas Eve, just a few months before. She and her mother Naoko had moved to the Refuge after being foreclosed on their house, and they spent Christmas with the Bureau members. They had a wonderful pre-Christmas dinner, sat around the tree singing carols and on the morning of Christmas Day, opened their presents.

The presents they opened were wonderful. There was a collar and food cake for Muta, mulberries, a blanket and leg warmers for Toto and Haru had gotten a sweater from her mother and paints and art supplies from the Bureau. Naoko had received more quilting supplies and Haru gave Baron a new cane, one she had carved in a wood shop class she took. It was varnished and looked a lot like his old one, but around the base there were small carvings of the Cat Kingdom adventure, including one of their dance. It was his most treasured possession.

_ But you went away. _ __   
_ How dare you? _ __   
_ I miss you! _ __   
_ They say I'll be okay, _ __   
_ But I'm not going to, _ _   
_ __ Ever get over you.

Then, on New Year's, she didn't come. The Refuge had become their home, but Haru and Naoko still worked and attended school outside. When she didn't come home on New Year's, Muta, Toto and Naoko searched for her while he contacted the Cat Kingdom, to see if she had been brought there somehow. Then Muta came back and told him the news. He was stricken for ages, he would just sit, not thinking of anything and just staring into space, or turn into his statute form to get away from it all. He had been checked by Cat Kingdom doctors and others who knew how to deal with Creations, and they all said he was fine and just needed time to adjust. But he wouldn't be able to adjust. Ever.

_ Living alone, _ __   
_ Here in this place, _ __   
_ I think of you, _ _   
_ __ And I'm not afraid.

_ Your favorite records, _ __   
_ Make me feel better, _ __   
_ Cause you'd sing along, _ __   
_ With every song. _ __   
_ I know you didn't, _ __   
_ Mean, _ __   
_ To give them, _ _   
_ __ To me.

He thought back as well to other memories, how there were times where, after noticing the old phonograph in the Bureau, Haru would bring back old records that they would play, and she would sing along. She even found on of the song they danced to in the Cat Kingdom somehow. Kratzen Blaut was the name and the finding of that quickly lead to dance lessons, and she confessed every other person she danced with ended up with bruises and once a broken leg. She used to have them in her room, but now, the records stayed in the Bureau, since only listening to them could make him feel any better.

_ But you went away. _ __   
_ How dare you? _ __   
_ I miss you! _ __   
_ They say I'll be okay, _ __   
_ But I'm not going to, _ _   
_ __ Ever get over you.

He finally got up out of his chair. He put on his coat and hat, picked up Haru's cane, as he called it, and walked out the doors, taking another of the alley paths, this one leading in the opposite direction of the crossroads and Haru's old house. He was getting covered in snow, but he didn't care. As a creation, he couldn't really feel cold, but he knew it was there. Now, it seemed to go through him, but he didn't care.

_ It really sinks in, _ __   
_ You know, _ __   
_ When I see it, _ _   
_ __ In stone.

He finally reached his destination, the cemetery on the outskirts of town. Toward the front was a headstone, made of an almost impossibly white stone, getting whiter with the falling snow. When he stopped in front of it, the snow hadn't fallen enough so he could still read the letters on it.

Haru Yoshoka  
June 1st, 1986 - January 1st, 2003  
Killed in New Year's Wreak  
A loving daughter and a friend to all.  
"Always believe in yourself. Do this, and no matter where you are, you'll have nothing to fear." - Baron Humbert Von Gikkingen.  
"If you find yourself troubled by something mysterious, or with a problem that's hard to solve, there is a place where you'll always find help. You just have to look for it." - The Cat Bureau Creed

When Haru had once told him she’d wanted his quote to her and the creed he had worked so hard to uphold for her headstone, he had gotten teary eyed. Seeing it now made it sink in. She's gone. She's not coming back.

_ But you went away. _ __   
_ How dare you? _ __   
_ I miss you! _ __   
_ They say I'll be okay, _ __   
_ But I'm not going to, _ _   
_ __ Ever get over you.

He knelt down in front of it, looking at the picture of Haru set into the stone. He caressed it, wishing he could truly do the same to her. "I love you, Haru." He was going to tell her when he found a spell to turn himself human, and he was certain he had found it when she died. Now, that book was just left as it was in his private study. He would never look at it again, there was no point.

He fell onto the ground, sobs wracking his frame, and tears that couldn't exist inside the normal laws came from his eyes. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but when he finally stopped, the snow had as well and the moon shone down, turning everything silver. With one last look at the grave, he turned and walked away, not noticing how his heart had felt lighter than is had in months.

**Author's Note:**

> The End. This came to me as I was falling asleep listening to my mp3 player, and Miranda Lambert's "Over You" came on and I was like, "What if Haru or Baron died and the other was singing this?" And then I turned it into Baron remembering Haru, since she's the only one that could actually die, who was killed in a car crash, and him visiting her grave for the first time. Bye for now, I will be back with more Cat Returns Fics soon. Until then, later.


End file.
